of peace to Tippo Saib, in his own capital. On the 15th of August, following, he was advanced to the dignity of Marquess Cornwallis; and, in the month of December, he received the unanimous thanks of both houses of parliament for his distinguished military services in India.-In 1798, the rebellion of Ireland appearing to require a Lord Lieutenant who could act in a military as well as in a civil capacity, His Majesty was pleased to appoint the Marquess Cornwallis to that high office, which he held with the utmost advantage for three years. In 1804, the noble Marquess had the honour of being appointed a second time Governor General in the East Indies. In that station, worn out with an active life spent in the service of his country, he died at Gauzepoor, Bengal, on the 5th of October, 1805. His Lordship had married, in 1768, Jemima Tullikins, daughter of James Jones, Esq. By that Lady, he had a son and successor, Charles, and a daughter, Mary, married to Mark Singleton, Esq., M.P., and principal Store Keeper of the Ord

THE WARDROBE OF THE NATIONS.—No. IV.

"Time was, when clothing, sumptuous or for use,
Save their own painted skins, our sires had none:
As yet black'sarsnets' were not; satin smooth,
Or velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile :

The hardy chief upon the rugged rock

Washed by the sea, or on the gravelly bank

Thrown up by wintry torrents, roaring loud,

Fearless of wrong, reposed his weary strength.-CowPer.

On looking backward to the state of || soberly to have stated, in pursuance the aborigines of England, at a period of our present design of giving a rapid when man

sketch of the wardrobe of England from the earliest to the present times-that the ancient Briton was, almost, what Lear exclaims of Edgar-" Is man no more than this? Consider him well. Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool ”—and then— unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art!" We shall neither enter into, nor quote from the disputes of several philosophers and naturalists, on the point whether man is by nature sufficiently guarded against the inclemency of the skies; but shall merely remark that it had been fortunate for the ancient Britons had they possessed the shirt-trees and cap-trees, spoken of by Humboldt. He says, in his Personal Narrative, "We saw in the slope of the Cerra Duida, shirt-trees fifty feet high. The Indians cut off cylindrical pieces two feet in diameter, from which they peel the red and fibrous bark, without making any longitudinal incision.

"For his acorn meal, fought the tusky boar," and after considering the painted bodies of the ancient Britons, we turn to contemplate the appearance of the fashionable world on a royal levee day, our wonder|| and admiration at human ingenuity and perseverance are excited beyond description; and we pay, perhaps in our silence, the meetest tribute of veneration towards those powers of intellect and manual la- | bour which have transformed a mere speck of swampy earth, the mere dens, we may say, of naked savages, and beasts scarcely less ferocious than their hunters, into a mansion and a home for all that adds a charm to life, and makes man really lord of the universe-that have changed the morasses and forests, despised by the Roman conqueror, into fields of plenty, and asylums for the unfortunatethat have transformed the barren spot of chalk, the jest of the despoilers of the ancient world, into the first pearl of the ocean, and the wonder of mankind. Eng-This bark affords them a sort of garment, land, guarded by valour, is doubly hal- which resembles sacks of a very coarse lowed by intellect; and with the shades of texture, and without a seam. The upper Drake, Marlborough, Nelson, that hover opening admits the head, and two lateral round her shores, are the souls of Alfred, holes are cut to admit the arms." AlShakspeare, Newton, Milton, Locke: though we doubt whether any of the fair their spirits, like the "flashing swords of readers of LA BELLE ASSEMBLEE could cherubim " at the gates of Paradise, guard || make the above description at all subevery approach, and drive backward the servient to a new elegance of dress, we black passions of tyranny and superstition, have, nevertheless, thought it worthy of with all the train of evils, that infest less admission into our pages. The cap-tree, favoured lands. we are told by the same author, is a species of palm-tree, of which the spathe furnishes a kind of pointed cap, resembling coarse net work. Evelyn tells us that the cocoa palm also adds to the wardrobe of the Indian, thread, cloth, caps, with umbrellas, which latter article, by-the-by,

It is impossible to glance at the state of our British ancestors, without kindling up into a glow of pride and admiration at the station of the Britons of the present day; hence, we could not repress the above apostrophe, when, perhaps, we ought

||

we find used in England as early as the days of Stephen.

gown, hanging down before, not unlike a sacerdotal garment. To the girdle a large purse or pouch (the first hint of an English pocket) was suspended.

The noise and bustle of the Crusades now began to stir throughout the world, and whatever enormities were committed under the prostituted name of religion, the spirit which was urging all Europe towards Jerusalem, gave, in some measure, a spur to the faculties of mankind— it awakened them for time from a base and selfish superstition, to a more noble fanaticism; and although society became || enlightened and quickened for a season by the sacrifice of succeeding ages of light, still the flame was kindled, howsoever rudely it was quenched in barbarism and in blood. Mr. Mills, in his animated and eloquent history, rightly says, "the bright days of Troubadour song were coeval with the Crusades." "This was," he adds, "the great event which poetry adorned with her choicest fictions, and where chivalry shone in all its splendour." We own, with the regretted historian, that, on casting up a fair account of profit and loss, succeeding ages paid most dearly for the former transient splendour.

The ancient Britons, it is well known, wore clothes of the skins of sheep and of wild animals, turning the furry side as the seasons changed. Like the South Sea Islanders, they painted, or rather tattoed their limbs with the forms of birds, beasts, fishes, or flowers-a lady doubtless, shewing as much imagination and elegance in her adornments, as her descendants of the present day. They also wore beads and bracelets of iron, with rings of the same material, which, on the conquest of the Romans, they gradually changed for ornaments of a more precious metal. From the Roman invasion, we may also date the partial disuse of using dyes and colours in the flesh; their dress || in some degree likewise assimilated to that of their conquerors, although it is not || till the time of the Saxons, that we find any distinct and ordained costume. At that period, society had advanced with an infant's step in the path of civilization, and although much of the grossness and barbarity, which particularized the age of total darkness remained, there was an evident attempt at splendour and even at luxury, in their dresses and their banquets. That excellent chronicler, Matthew Paris, speaking of the dress of the Anglo-Saxon ladies, says, "The women wore a long loose robe, reaching to the ground. On their heads hung a veil, which, falling down before, was gathered up at the corners, and folded round their necks and over their bosoms. The robe was usually ornamented with a broad border, coloured or embroidered. Slippers were worn by men and women of fashion; and the men had a crossed bandage in lieu of a stocking." Gold chains and bracelets were in fashion, and, indeed, the favourite ornaments of both sexes. This simplicity of dress remained without much alteration,|| for a length of time, for we find that the vestments of the Anglo-Norman ladies in the eleventh century differed, in a very trifling degree, from those of their predecessors, the Anglo-Saxons. The queen and ladies of fashion wore loose gowns, trailing on the ground, and girt round the waist. This is the first intimation we have of the zone or girdle in England. The married women had an additional robe over the

||

From heart to heart was stealing,
From earth to man, frem man to earth,
It was the hour of feeling ;'

the heart of man was bolder, his arm
firmer, than in the days of dull reality,
and the spirit of adventurous knighthood
was softened into heroic gentleness and
gallant love. The beauty of woman be-
came a boast and a treasure, and the
mortal mixture of earth's mould' was
worshipped as a starry divinity." He
concludes, "the fountains of pure and
gentle feelings, which were destined to
spread refinement and civilization over
the world, were at any rate opened." Of
course, Britain, although not the most
frequented spot of the Troubadours, was,
both by a comparative similarity of lan-

guage (at least in the higher ranks) and

Compared with that supreme delight?

government, in a great degree under the in- || We leave thy loveliest flowers, and watch that

lady bright!"

From the first settlement of the Normans,

fluence of the minstrels of the south. We took our jousts and tournaments from the courts of France, and our fair dames partook || embroidery became a favourite art with of the splendour displayed by their viva- || the highest ladies, both in matters of dress cious neighbours. "These tournaments," and of tapestry. It had been partially says the chronicler, “are attended by many practised by the Anglo-Saxon ladies, the ladies of the first rank and greatest beauty, || mantle of Witlaff, King of Mercia, owing but not always of the most unblemished much of its beauty to female ingenuity. It reputation. [Old Froissart sturdily con- was, however, left to Matilda, the wife of demns the custom.] These ladies are William the Conqueror, to commemorate, dressed in party-coloured tunics, one half in the famous tapestry still shewn at being of one colour, and the other half of Bayeux, an art now almost forgotten in another. Their tinipes (or tippets) are our land. The ladies of England wore very short, their caps remarkably little, jewels at a very early period: they are and wrapt about their heads with cords; spoken of in the time of Alfred. their girdles are ornamented with gold and There are two implements, which, alsilver, and they wear short swords (like though they are in themselves of but daggers) before them, which hang across small importance, yet falling directly the stomach. They are mounted on the within the nature of our subject, we must finest horses with the richest furniture: even bestow a word or two on-the needle thus equipped, they ride from place to and pin-which may almost be said to place in quest of tournaments; by which constitute a part of the wardrobe of all they dissipate their fortunes, and not un- | nations.-The manufacture of needles was frequently ruin their reputation." From commenced in 1566, and directed by one this period, luxury advanced with great Elias Gunse, a German. They had apstrides, despite of the ecclesiastical fulmi- peared in Cheapside during the reign of nations against long-toed shoes (which Mary. A Spanish negro had made them, first came in with William Rufus) long but as he refused to discover his art, the curling hair, and the weighty charges of nation received little benefit from him. effeminacy for wearing gloves. Perhaps, The pin had been known in England ever the following rude lines by a poet in the since the close of Henry VIII.'s reign; fourteenth century (see Warton) will suf- || when it had afforded to the ladies a pleaficiently show the advanced state of magsant substitute for ribbons, loopholes, nificence in housekeeping— laces, with points and tags, clasps, hooks and eyes, and skewers made of wood, brass, silver, and gold. This minute implement was thought sufficiently important to merit a parliamentary regulation. Accordingly, by stat. 37, Hen. VIII. cap 13, all "pinnes are prohibited from being sold, unless they be doubleheaded, and the heads soldered fast to the shank of the pinne, well smoothed, the shank well shewen, the point well and round filed, canted, and sharpened." This long process, which must have rendered the pin expensive, was dropped in about

"Your blankettes shall be of fusty ane,
Your shetes shall be of cloth of rayne,
Your bede shete shall be of pyghte
With dymonds set and rubys bryghte.

"When you are laid in bed so softe,
A cage of golde shall hange of lofte,
With longe peper sayre brenynge,
And cloves that be swete smellyne."

To go back a little, we find Walter Vogelweide, a minnesinger (love-singer) of the thirteenth century, in comparing his lady,|| when richly dressed, to May, gives the preference to his love. He says, or sings-three years, and the pin became what it

"But when a lady, chaste and fair,
Noble, and clad in rich attire,
Walks through the throng with gracious air,
As one that bids the stars retire;
Then, where are all thy boastings, May?
What hast thou beautiful and gay

is now.

Both the pin and needle have received homage from the poet, the fabulist, and the essay-writer. We remember to have seen the pin treated very philosophically, in "good set terms," in a clever modern

work, entitled Janus. Both are brought
into conjunction by Gay, who works out a
pithy moral from the meeting. Words-
worth has an address "To a Needle
Case in the Form of a Harp!"-He says

"A very harp in all but size!
Needles for strings in apt gradation!
Minerva's self would stigmatize
The unclassic profanation."

The poet, however, being reminded, that

"Spirits of all degrees rejoice
In presence of the Lyre,"

makes an apt apology :

"Gay sylphs this miniature will court, Made vocal by their brushing wings, And sullen gnomes will learn to sport Around its polished strings!" How sweetly Helena, upbraiding mia, says

milkmaid," of Sir T. Overbury, who says of her "that all her excellencies stand in her so silently, as if they had stole upon her without her knowledge."* The lining of her apparell (which is herself) is far better than outsides of tissew: for though she be not arrayed in the spoils of the silk-worm, she is decked in innocence, a far better wearing." He says, " she makes her hand hard with labour, and her heart soft with pity; and when winter evenings fall early (sitting at her merry wheel) she sings a defiance to the giddy wheel of fortune. She doth all things with so sweet a grace, it seems ignorance will not suffer her to do ill, being her mind to do ill." "Thus lives she, and all her care is that she may die in the spring-time to have store of flowers stuck upon her windingHer-sheet." Cowper, who of all men had the keenest sense of domestic quiet, draws us "winter's a delightful companion for a evening :”—

All school-days' friendship, childhood inno

So we grew together

Like to a double cherry, seeming parted;
But yet a union in partition,

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,

Due but to one, and crowned with one crest."

This picture is one of the most pure and delightful of all the hundreds of glowing and beautiful scenes, wrought in a single sentence, by the great master. Sir Philip Sydney describes the employment of a shepherd and shepherdess in a quiet, yet attractive style. He says, "Here a shepherd's boy piping as though hee should never bee old; there a young shepherdess knitting, and withal singing, and it seemed

here the needle plies its busy task, The pattern grows, the well-depicted flower, Wrought patiently into the sunny lawn, Unfolds its bosom; buds, and leaves, and sprigs, And curling tendrils, gracefully disposed, Follow the nimble finger of the fair,

A wreath that cannot fade, or flowers, that blow

With most success when all besides decay."

How exquisite, when the winds are roaring about the roof, driving the snow in huge heaps at the door, the sleet cutting at the windows-when we feel that all without is desolation, chaining up the warm spirit of animal and vegetable life in the fetters of ice and snow, when all without is "black deformity," how exquisite, to see the mimic flowers of summer rise up and bud beneath fingers that we love, making all within bright, sunny weather! In such a moment, man is divorced from all the passions, the petty fears, the sordid hopes, that too frequently mingle in, and taint his every day-life; in such a moment, his bosom expands with benevolence and love towards all his kind, and "the shivering Icelander and sunburnt Moor," are to him objects of the liveliest pity and affection. Could we get

that her voice comforted her hands to work, and her hands kept time to her Philoclea so bashful, as though her excelvoice musick." Of a more simple and lencies had stolen into her before she was aware. touching character is "a fair and happy-Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia.